AUGUST 2008
Willing or Willful?
My dearest brothers and sisters,
I hope you have watched the video I posted last month: The Matrix of Illusion. If you did you may be confused as to why I posted it on a Christian website. The answer lies in the riddle of the will.
Is it God’s design that I exercise my will, that I grab the “bull by the horns” as the cliché goes? Is it God’s design that I create my destiny? Is that sacred “image” I share of His the ability to create my dream as He did and does? Or, was I designed instead for submission to His will? Am I to be proactive or active, willful or willing, determined or yielding, hungry or grateful? Am I responsible for my life or, if I entrust it to God, is God responsible? And if my life does not turn out well, who do I blame?
If I have the power but fail to use it then who is really to blame for the calamity of a wasted life? If I use the power contrary to the will (Thelema) of God, then will God reject me as a rebel?
What I present to you now is not truth or insight but questions, yearnings, the very longing of my heart, a heart in turmoil and oft times confused.
I urge you to proceed with caution.
“It is only in a reconciliation of will and spirit that we have any real hope for wholeness….For things to come out right, will must make a radical surrender….The problem of personal mastery versus self-surrender exists in every moment of choice,” – Gerald May, Will and Spirit.
In his book, The Great Divorce, the brilliant CS Lewis said, “What of the poor Ghosts who never get [in]…Everyone who wishes it does. Never fear. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find, to those who knock the door is opened.”
To me, there is no mystery greater than when to be willing and when to be willful. And, to my mind there is only one question more significant and that one question is this: Who is Jesus Christ?
I am grappling with the question of Will (Thelema).
Please see the following article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema
“Your kingdom come, Your will (θ?λημα) be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” – Matthew 6:10
He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” – Matthew 26:42
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. —John 1:12-13
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. —Romans 12:2
…and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. —2 Timothy 2:26
Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created. —Revelation 4:11
When told she would be impregnated by God, and give birth to the God/man despite the fact that she could be killed for an unwed pregnancy, Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, be it done unto me according to thy Word.” - Luke 1:38
Mary provides for me, the most elegant example of willingness in the Bible. She was willing, not willful, humble not proud, obedient, not rebellious. By some secular standards her life was not a success: She lived in relative poverty and watched her son die a grizzly death, and yet she was obedient and willing.
In the 5th century, Augustine of Hippo wrote "Love, and do what you will" (Dilige et quod vis fac) in his Sermon on 1st John
Aleister Crowley said, “Love is the Law, Love under Will. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt….This means that each of us is to move on our own true orbit.”
For Crowley and for me, will, love, and destiny are inseparable.
36 "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." 38 "This is the first and great commandment." 39 "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 40 "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." – Matthew 22: 36 – 40
I believe in the cross of Jesus Christ. I believe in absolute surrender to the will of God. But I am tired of Christian leaders that exploit the poor to fatten their own hides on the back of the sacred message of the cross, and I am tired of whining Christians that blame God for every foolish mistake they ever made. If you want to grow up then read and struggle on knowing that God does indeed have a will and purpose for your life, but only you can discover it, and that my dear ones is a lonely journey.
The man that wrote this work: The Science of Getting Rich said of himself that he was a believer. The Christians of his day largely rejected his teaching however it has influenced the positive thinking/motivational speaking movement as well as the positive confession, faith, and possibly the later rain movements within the contemporary church.
I am in no way endorsing this work. What I find challenging in it is:
- His emphasis on gratitude
- His emphasis on concentrating on the work at hand, a kind of bloom where you are planted mentality, and
- The most clearly stated “magickal” formula I have ever heard; magick as in creating change by magickal means – no rituals, no bells and whistles just will and the focus of intent . We all do this to some degree, the question is: Do we do it according to God’s will and intent or according to our own?
This is a public domain work and it can be found at the following link:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Getting_Rich
The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from The Science of Getting Rich)
Wallace Wattles biography-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Wattles